IS THERE A PALACE REVOLT BREWING AGAINST DA MAYOR?

"Count De Cabler – I have come on the most urgent of business. It is said that the peasants are revolting!

King Tony – You said it; they stink on ice.
By Juan Montoya
He came in riding the wave of a popular election over former Mayor Pat Ahumada.
The local press – partners with him in cheering on the United Brownsville Shadow Government – joined the bandwagon with their eight-page megaphone asking all of us to "Believe in Brownsville."
He was Tony Martinez, partner in the law firm of Barrera-Martinez and the darling of the city's electorate and king makers.
After two years of the Martinez-style form of government, where neither Martinez nor his cronies at United Brownsville – IBC President Fred Rusteberg, Machiavellian Matamoros Millionaire Carlos Marin and UTB Presdidetn Julieta Garcia – answer to anyone, including the the city commission, the gruel is getting thin.
We understand now that some of the other commissioners  are chafing under the bit as Martinez continues his habit of spending the city's money as if it the city's treasure were his personal ATM machine.

The straw that broke the camel's back was his almost exclusive spending of a more than $3 million settlement between the city and the the city and the American Electric Power Texas Central Co. The mayor and administration, flying under the radar with purchases under the $35,000 limit after which they have to bring them before the full commission, has already tapped into it and only $2.6 million is left.
That prompted commissioners John Villarreal (co-chair of United Brownsville) Jessica Tetreau, Deborah Portillo and Ricardo Longoria to ask administration (City Manager Charlie Cabler) to bring all items spent by the mayor and city administration before them and before they are spent.
But his isn't the first time that Da Mayor has been indiscriminate in his spending of city money on his own.
Martinez has made it a habit to spend OPM (Other People's Money). Since he's been in office he has abused the discretionary $35,000 limit.
Word has it that the mayor – at the behest of Carlos Marin, his mentor and confidante – had scores of visitors flown in and housed in local swank hotels in late 2012 for a high-priced workshop. When the bill came in and the piper had to be paid, it is said Martinez sent the bill to Gonzales with the order to "pay it."
Martinez, an attorney who is used to doing everything discreetly and behind the scenes, apparently doesn't know that the public has the right to know what their representatives are up to and what they are doing with their money. If he wants to spend money at will, he can always spend his own and no one will question him. But when he spends and then delivers the fait accompli to the city administration and expects them to pay the piper now, it may be that he has got another thing coming.
These expenses include the real-estate purchases, the contracting of outside consultants for the Better Block, All In, buildingcommunities WORKSHOP, United Brownsville funding, etc.
– In July 2012 he had Cabler authorize the payment of $1,500 to one R. Steven Lewis, a licensed architect and self-described "UTB Relocation Consultant." In a previous email, Lewis had said that he would just require payment of his air fare from California and his room at the Marriott Courtyard for "Mayor Martinez." Then, just five days later on July 31, Lewis apparently had a change of heart and Cabler received another email invoice from Lewis, this time for $4,500 for his "UT Brownsville Relocation Consultation." Martinez ordered the city staff to pay it.
– The Complete Streets Workshop" held May 16 featured Kevin St. Jaques, a member of the Complete Streets Speakers Bureau which was held at the mayor's initiative and which required the Brownsville Community Incentives Corporation (BCIC) to fork over $5,000, of which $2,300 was paid to Freese and Nichols, of Ft. Worth, to have Jaques tell us that our things as they were in Browntown left much to be desired.
–  Gil Peñalosa, the executive director of the 8-80 Cities, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, came on Tony's behalf and told us on August 28-30 at a conference at the Cueto Building that we should be ashamed of ourselves for having such bad streets, sidewalks and phantom bus shelters. Almost a month (August 1) before Peñalosa browbeat the citizens, city administrators and local bigwigs over the condition of our infrastructure and lack of sidewalks and shoddy streets, the city meekly approved payment to him for $7,974 that included $6,500 for professional services, $988 for air transportation, and $485 for accommodations and meals in good old "American dollars," as he requested, not in discounted Canadian currency.
– The  building communityWORKSHOP of Dallas which includes four principals of Design/Program and another four support assistants have been working for Tony on his UTB proposal to entice the Hidalgo County-bound UT System to "please stay in little old' Browntown and we'll give you all kinds of land to do it."
The mayor has convinced a way too pliant city commission to approve real estate purchases in the downtown area totalling more than $4 million to be paid by future taxation on residents' property and "some surpluses" from the city landfill and airport.
– buildingcommunityWORKSHOP has made Tony's pipe dream an industry. It's first invoice for the ongoing work for Tony's UTB proposal cost us a tidy sum.
Their first invoice landed on Cabler's desk with a thud. The hit for putting together a Request For Proposals which could have been done in-house by a planning intern was not cheap. Would you believe $27,803.12 which included round-trip flights from Dallas to Harlingen for its principal at a cost of $541. 20 (Sept. 21), $347.20 (Oct. 3), and $535.20 (Oct. 8)?
Among the items in the invoice for the $475 monthly rent on an apartment (Sept. 21) needed to house the
The most recent Martinez extravagances are documented in Jim Barton's www.meanmisterbrownsville.blogspot.
Is the city commission ready to stop the profligate spending by our spendthrift mayor? Or will he squelch the minor revolt that has erupted over his spending?